It is always such a strange thing to host a Good Friday service. I have been hosting these things for twelve years. It is the same thing every year. We sing the somber, beautiful songs on Christ’s atoning death on the cross. We mourn our sins. The lighting gets darker. It is possible for these things to get a bit…formulaic.
One year, early in ministry, a woman was present for the service who did not like me very much. I remember it was a weekly tradition for her to go through the receiving line after worship, every stinking week, just to lodge her complaint with me personally about my hymn selection or some other matter. Yet for that one night, even though it was not my best night, for her, something happened. With tears in her eyes, she approached. Looking me right in my face, she gasped, “I felt like I was there.”
Maybe she was on a new medication. That is possible.
Or maybe the Holy Spirit works through the structures that we create in good faith. Perhaps he is able to work in the hearts of even the most stubborn or hateful people when they continue to avail themselves of the “old, old story.”
I have a brother in Christ, whom I love and like very much. He is something of a spiritual father to me. He knows and loves the scriptures in a way that I hope to approach someday. This last week, I got to hear his reasons as to why it is that he is 100% certain that Jesus died on a Thursday. I had heard some of it before. The Gospel of John directly matches Christ’s sacrifice with that of the paschal lamb of the Passover festival. Even so, the other three gospels seem to state pretty clearly that it was on a Friday he died, which was the first day, then he descended to the realm of the dead, where he remained through Saturday, the second day, and then he rose to the glory of the Father on Sunday, the third day. He rose again on the third day. My brother in Christ didn’t find my recollection compelling.
“Well, I’m going to do Good Friday, anyway, brother,” I said. “I know,” he said, “Traditions of man and all that.” It was a good dig. It stuck between my ribs. I have thought of it a lot since then.
I do Good Friday on a Friday for the same reason I do Christmas on December 25. I don’t know for certain that those events happened historically on those days. I just know that they happened, and that we need to collectively celebrate these things. I don’t get to go back to the beginnings of the church and participate in the conversations about when we should celebrate each thing. I just get to receive the tradition, imperfect though it may be
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And that tradition has worked transformation in the lives of a lot of hard-headed people like me and my old antagonist from Idaho. The Lord works through imperfect structures and events to perfect us in love. And though it might feel formulaic to host this same service once again, I trust that God will operate as suits and glorifies him in the midst of all that.
And as I gather with the saints again this Sunday to remember his resurrection, I trust that he will likewise be revealed in the waters of baptism and the breaking of bread. Because that is what he said would happen, and I believe him. I hope to worship with others who believe tonight and Sunday morning, and for all eternity in Christ’s Kingdom…
Pixner was a Benedictine monk at Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem. The books I have - “The Fifth Gospel: Walking with Jesus Through the Galilee” and “Jesus First and Last Days in Judea” are fascinating. He proposes there is simply not enough time between Gethsemane - Caiphas’ House - Sanhedrin - Pilate for it all to take place in a matter of hours. When I consider traditional times and locations, I fall back on what our first Jewish guide told us in 1998. “Some people come to the Holy Land wanting to stand in Jesus’ footsteps and their trip is ruined when they find out they’re just in the general vicinity. I encourage people to remember we are here to commemorate what God did in history.”
I picked up two of Bargil Pixner’s books in Israel. He thought it possible the Last Supper was celebrated on Tuesday according to the Essene calendar. This article doesn’t have the detail of the book, but you get the essence: https://apnews.com/article/594379cba0e281e5678dafd808cb2a90